The Father of Clean Cycling, Christophe Bassons wrote:When I look at cycling today, I get the impression that history is repeating itself: riders who are supposed to be rouleurs are climbing passes at the front of the race, and those who are supposed to be climbers are riding time trials at more than 50 kilometres per hour.

the profile seems a little similar to the ToC. I wonder what will sagan be able to get from it. From the profile, he could get to the finish in first group in at least 5 stages. Providing that the teams will catch the early escapes and Sagan is not in Argentina just for getting some km's after new year's celebration. I have read that he's been training pretty hard also during christmas around his home in Zilina. I might add that it was pretty horrible weather in Slovakia, snow, freezing rain, wind ... I truly cannot even imagine, how can someone sane go training outside on road bike to go on normal routes together with cars. He's either crazy or really devoted to get far more better this year compared to the last one. I can't wait til the season starts.

tomorrow wrote:the profile seems a little similar to the ToC. I wonder what will sagan be able to get from it. From the profile, he could get to the finish in first group in at least 5 stages. Providing that the teams will catch the early escapes and Sagan is not in Argentina just for getting some km's after new year's celebration. I have read that he's been training pretty hard also during christmas around his home in Zilina. I might add that it was pretty horrible weather in Slovakia, snow, freezing rain, wind ... I truly cannot even imagine, how can someone sane go training outside on road bike to go on normal routes together with cars. He's either crazy or really devoted to get far more better this year compared to the last one. I can't wait til the season starts.

LaFlorecita wrote:He'll lose a lot of time in the mountain stages though

well, I don't think he will go after overall. I think he will battle with Cavendish and Boonen likes in flat stages and in the finishes that are slightly uphill. I think there are only 2 uphill finishes that are to hard and to long for him to get to them in front. However he might easily win the other 5 stages and make all the people be complaining about how the race is boring, even though they have liked the profile at first. I don't say it will happen surely, but there is high probability of that providing he's already in something like 80 percent of his potential. Nobody will be there in their top form. Just look at the profile of the last ToC and you'll see what I mean.

tomorrow wrote:well, I don't think he will go after overall. I think he will battle with Cavendish and Boonen likes in flat stages and in the finishes that are slightly uphill. I think there are only 2 uphill finishes that are to hard and to long for him to get to them in front. However he might easily win the other 5 stages and make all the people be complaining about how the race is boring, even though they have liked the profile at first. I don't say it will happen surely, but there is high probability of that providing he's already in something like 80 percent of his potential. Nobody will be there in their top form. Just look at the profile of the last ToC and you'll see what I mean.

so Sagan cleaning up in Argentina. Boring? Perhaps, but we may never know if the organizer fails to deliver TV production.

So we can have FDJ and Argos instead of the local teams that are in shape? Yeah.

...[Walsh] thinks we're ahead of the curve. But think about it for a sec. We're building long-lasting, trusting relationships with people who are spending a lot of money - Coke, Nike, Subaru. If we're f***ing lying, we can kiss it all goodbye. And if we were lying we'd do some stupid stuff to try to cover it up, wouldn't we? Does anybody think for a second that a secret that big wouldn't come out? Bill Stapleton

Dazed and Confused wrote:so Sagan cleaning up in Argentina. Boring? Perhaps, but we may never know if the organizer fails to deliver TV production.

well, it wouldn't be boring for me even if he won all the stages as I am his fan, however I can understand the complaints about it from the other people that want some excitment in the finish, not just question who will be the second. Of course, if he's in Argentina too, this is not the question either. I would be Haussler

tomorrow wrote:well, it wouldn't be boring for me even if he won all the stages as I am his fan, however I can understand the complaints about it from the other people that want some excitment in the finish, not just question who will be the second. Of course, if he's in Argentina too, this is not the question either. I would be Haussler

Dazed and Confused wrote:so you see Cav just hanging around at the back on all the stages?

He did last time he raced in January.

...[Walsh] thinks we're ahead of the curve. But think about it for a sec. We're building long-lasting, trusting relationships with people who are spending a lot of money - Coke, Nike, Subaru. If we're f***ing lying, we can kiss it all goodbye. And if we were lying we'd do some stupid stuff to try to cover it up, wouldn't we? Does anybody think for a second that a secret that big wouldn't come out? Bill Stapleton